Change Blindness
by The Evil Corkyapine
Summary: Change Blindness: The inability to see that something in a scene has changed - seeing only what you expect to see.


Theo always notices Blaise.

He notices the way he laughs, loud and booming and a little scratchy, attracting the attention of anyone who happens to be in the common room at the time. It never matters how many death glares he receives from the more studious Slytherins, he never bothers to be any quieter.

He notices the way his eyes light up with almost childlike glee when hearing a story of the latest hexes that had been released on several unfortunate first years, no matter how simple it was or how much damage was caused. That is never the point to Blaise. Its just the rush of actually doing _something_, no matter how small.

He notices the way he looks at mudbloods, as though they're not fit to breathe the same air as him. Not _him_, Blaise Zabini, the son of a well established pureblood witch and his dead father, whose blood was no less pure. No, these mudbloods don't deserve a second glance from someone as important as him.

That doesn't stop him from fucking them anyway.

He notices that odd little smirk that forms on Blaine's face when Draco speaks about Potter. He thinks he's the only one to notice Draco's infatuation with the Gryffindor, even though it's so obvious that a blind muggle would still be able to spot it a mile away.

He notices the way he glances over at Theo's work when they're doing homework, copying the answer word-for-word of he got it wrong, or grinning quietly when he's on the right track. Theo might have had a problem with such outright copying of his work if Blaise wasn't right about ninety percent of the time anyway.

He notices the tiny hints of emotion that slip thromasks he mask he wears out in public, when they're away from the safety of Slytherin house. The small traces of worry just before they hey assignments back, no matter how confident he sounds, and the flicker of happiness that he'd never purposely show just because they got scrambled egg for breakfast. He tries to hide himself when too many people can see, but Theo always gets it.

He notices the way he watches people, he doesn't really notice them like Theo does, but he watches them. The way they look, the way they move, like a predetor. Blaise looks at him that way too, he's seen it. Everyone is just prey to him. Not that anyone ever cares.

He notices the careless way Blaise treats him when they fuck, how his fingernails scratch stinging red lines into his skin that sometimes last for days, the violence with which he is thrusted up against a wall with enough force to make his eyes water, and the way his teeth catch graze against every inch of skin they can find, leaving marks that are always far too visible.

He notices the others, too, that Blaise sleeps with, whether they be one night stands, or regulars like Theo. He hears them scream Blaise's name at night when silencing charms are performed too hastily and messily, and once he even spied him and a plain-looking Hufflepuff boy ride out a climax through the gap in the hanging curtains, since they had been kissing too heatedly to bother shutting it properly. Blaise never notices his mistakes, and Theo pretends he doesn't get off to them.

He should, Theo reflects, get over him. He should tell Blaise to find another friend to have benefits with, and find someone that he can have a future with. But he can't. He's too obsessed with the boy with the pretty eyes and all the tiny, tragically beautiful imperfections to ever let go of what little he has. He can't help but love the bastard, no matter what he does.

Which is definitely a good thing, considering what Theo neglects to notice.

He doesn't notice the slowly dwindling number of students that Blaise spends time fucking, as he dumps all his regulars and only finds someone new when he's really bored. Which, granted, is more often than most people, but it's still a great change compared to before.

He doesn't notice Blaise's subtle glances in Theo's direction, even with their increasing frequency every day. Sometimes it can even be classified as outright staring, and yet Theo still, for all his usually brilliant observational skills, fails to pick up on any of it.

He doesn't notice the first _I love you_, or the hundred after that, whispered softly into his hair as he drifts off to sleep, or written on his back with long, lazy fingers as they struggle to regain their breaths.

He doesn't even notice how Blaise curls up next to him and sleeps for the whole night, something he never does with anyone else. He really ought to have noticed as his sleep is usually so fractured, but his nights with Blaise beside him are always uninterrupted, and he doesn't wake until everyone's gone and he's ten minutes late for breakfast.

Theo honestly doesn't notice any of these changes until he sees the smile. He walks into the Great Hall for lunch a few minutes late and catches Blaise'e eye as he makes his way to the Slytherin table. Then, right in front of the entire school, Blaise smiles, so openly and purely that Theo just GETS IT. And he notices. He notices all the changes that have happened, all the things that he brushed off as nothing and he notices that Blaise wants him. Blaise let his mask down, just for a second, and just to greet him. Theo smiles back and sits next to him, giving his thigh an affectionate squeeze as Blaise went back to his loud conversation with Pansy about some Snape-related theories, but his hand finds Theo's and keeps it there.

And later that night, _I love you_ isn't whispered in those last waking moments, but instead repeated over and over with each kiss, each touch, until the words are part of them, part of everything, and Theo realises that maybe he's not the only one to notice things. Maybe, this time, he was noticed.

* * *

_I was getting angry at another fic I was writing, so I wrote this :D To anyone reading this who knows more about what change blindness is, you'll know that it's not something that Theo has, but I though it made a pretty fitting title anyway. Also I'm thinking about writing another chapter, the same thing but in Blaise's view. Let me know what you think._

_The definition in the summary comes from the MacMillan Dictionary. The characters in this story and also my soul belongs to the great JK Rowling. _


End file.
